There is also an interview with Limarev today in la Repubblica. It is a devastating attack on Guzzanti, Scaramella and their hokum Mitrokhin commission.

The interview was conducted on March 3rd, 2005.

Limarev was involved in the Scaramella scams at the behest of Litvinenko as another testimony. His opinion of both Guzzanti and Scaramella is blunt: a fraudulent caper to smear prominent opposition figures. Limarev names names (published) and declares that Scaramella's security company was run in tandem with Americans. The author of the article asserts that Limarev showed him the names of the American security companies but does not publish them.

Limarev accuses Scaramella of having used both himself and Litvinenko for political ends.

Scaramella recently asserted that he had received the notorious emails he took to London from Limarev. Limarev categorically denies any involvement with the emails.

I would not exclude the possibility of Scaramella being linked to the political and intel fringes of ... dunno what to call it other than a kind of post-Gladio NeoCon-friendly, P2-shadowed "Michael Ledeen & Friends of Friends" zone of Italy's political undergrowth. Note also Scaramella and Guzzanti's stubborn attempts to link Prodi both to Ali Agca's shooting of pope John Paul II - seem to remember Ledeen was involved in pushing a faked "Bulgarian connection" theory at the time, as close associate/American connection of Francesco Pazienza? Also that the Billygate scandal was a Pazienza/Ledeen caper??

Anyway, Scaramella strikes me less as a "private enterprising" conman-vulture, even in tandem with Guzzanti, than a very shady guy working for a no less shady group/faction with a distinct agenda, both internal and external to Italian politics. Note also the ties to Colombia mentioned in the Sun article, and the silent American Litvinenko declares sat in at one of his sessions with Scaramella. Plus SOMEONE with international-level influence must have pushed for invites for him and his ECPP thingy to the OSCE conferences and NYU symposia that list his name and ECPP-thingy amongst their reporters/participants in google-traceable official proceedings pdfs?

Billy Carter actually did go to Libya and booze with George Habash. Ledeen and Pazienza organized the scoop. Their first meeting was in the bathroom of the CSIS in Washington. It's a great story to tell. To think history was changed thanks to a deal in the toilet.

Ledeen, Claire Sterling and Francesco Pazienza were deeply involved in putting together the fake Bulgarian connection in the Ali Agca assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II's life. The Mitrokhin commission tried to resell the story by alleging there was proof in the Stasi archives. Guzzanti and his cohorts accused the Stasi of holding back the documents. They produced a big PR storm which was amplified and broadcasted throughout the world through the good offices of the Corriere della Sera.

La Repubblica blew the scam apart. They got hold of the Stasi documents and began publishing them. The contents only proved that the Bulgarians were bewildered by the American- Italian attempt to frame them. The Repubblica then interviewed the head of Stasi, Misha Wolff, who brushed off the matter sardonically. At that point Repubblica turned over the entire cache of the Stasi-Bulgarian documents with a note saying that usually reporters are forced to turn over documents by warrant and that they find it very satisfying to donate the "missing" documents to the commission to further their search for truth.

There is a disquieting follow up to all this. The other day the actual head of the Bulgarian archives, Bozhidar Doychev, was found dead, shot through the mouth. Suicide or suicided. The Bulgarian archives may be opened by a parliamentary vote in the near future. Purportedly it would contain information from the infamous "Darzhavna sigurnost" on Ali Agca and the Markov murder, much to Guzzanti's joy. If only he could get his chums to forge some fake Bulgarian archives. With Igor Marini, Rocco Martino and Scaramella presently on the dole he shouldn't have problems finding helpers.

There has been a rash of "suicides" (three) in Bulgaria this autumn, all linked to the Minister of Interior or the Secret Services.